Location based crowdsourcing is important for a real time understanding of the physical environment. Real time indexing, analysis and dissemination of the physical world is possible due to the prevalence of mobile platforms with advanced computing and connectivity, such as cellular telephones, smart phones, tablets or other portable communication devises. Crowdsourcing using sensor data from mobile platforms is useful as it provides real samples from the physical environment, which may not be possible (or extremely difficult, costly and time consuming) to obtain using brute force survey techniques.
Current applications of location based crowdsourcing include, for example, gathering knowledge with respect to real time venue visitations or geographic WiFi signatures, or to understand a location based on conversations around the location. Additional applications of location based crowdsourcing are possible, but are generally not pursued to the difficulty associated with obtaining the necessary and specific crowdsourcing information.